Older Persons/Geriatrics

The Age Friendly Guide: A Directory of Supports and Services for Older People in Cork City and County 

This publication has been published by the HSE Community Work Department Cork to address the need for more information on services and supports for older people across Cork city and County in one easy to use booklet.  We set out to create a comprehensive directory of services for older people to fill a gap that existed in information on services for the older persons with in Cork City and County. 

The expressed need for the directory arose from a number of sources including; the Mercy Hospital Group, the Cork City Age Friendly forum, The Cork City Age Friendly Alliance, the Cork Age Friendly County Alliance and the Cork County Older Peoples Council. 

The need also emerged from work taking place internally in the HSE to meet the National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare – HIQUA that is currently taking place. One of the key areas identified in this process was the need for better information provision both internally and to the wider community on health services. One of these aims of which this booklet addresses is to address the need for high quality information that is accurate, valid, reliable, timely, relevant, legible and complete. 

The Community Work Department, Cork & Kerry Community Health Care used their links with local groups, the HSE, the City and County Councils, An Gardaí Soíchána and NGO’s to gather the information from across the city and county. 

The directory contains information on health services for older people, key regional services (voluntary and statutory), Community / Voluntary groups across the regions,   Emergency numbers, and a Useful Numbers section. Over 550 services are listed in the directory from Cork City and Cork County. 

The directory was carefully designed to ensure ease of use for the older person and service providers to signpost to other organisations. It is A5 in size which allows it to fit neatly into a bag or to be held in hand. The contents section clearly indicates how each geographical area and information section is colour coded which allows for quick navigation of the resource. It also contains a “tear out and let us know page” for anyone who wants to let us know of a new service or update an existing service in the book.

 

Engagement Process 

Extensive stakeholder engagement was achieved by working with our partners in the Age Friendly City and County. Three consultations took place with the older people’s representatives from the in the early stages of design to ensure we were meeting the needs of the older person. Age Friendly City and County Alliance were up dated and consulted at regular intervals during the process. 

The Directory was launched on the 30th of November 2017 and has since been distributed to services and communities across the city and county. These services include Meals on Wheels groups, Libraries, Primary Care Teams, Hospitals, community tea dances, Friendly Call service members and Garda Stations and day Care centres. Over 3000 directories have been distributed to date. 

The creation of the Age Friendly Guide fulfilled actions outlined in the Cork Age Friendly City Programme Strategic Plan 2016 to 2020 and the Cork Age Friendly county Strategy 2016 to 2021. 

The directory helps the older person or family member supporting an elderly family member to access services in their own community or a national service.

 

Statutory and Community Involvement 

  • Cork & Kerry Community Health Care HSE Directory Subcommittee – Community Work Department – Tony Fitzgerald, Stephen Murphy, Triona Healy and Brendan Scahill

  • The Cork City Age Friendly Alliance

  • Cork Age Friendly County Alliance

  • Cork City Age Friendly Forum

  • Cork County Older Peoples Council

  • Also consulted with approximately 200 eldercare groups